What is it? A 106-acre park just outside Holyhead on site of old quarry that used to mine Anglesey Quartz to build the 1.5mile-long ‘breakwater’ to protect the town's harbour. More than seven million tonnes of quartz were mined so a huge chunk of mountain has been taken away.

The park makes the most of what is undoubtedly a blot on the landscape. The council were going to turn the quarry into a refuse tip in 1990 (it had become the unofficial dump outside the town) but instead decided to build this country park.

Summary: Thank God the council decided not to keep this place as a tip. To me it’s the epitome of a green space because of its juxtaposition with Holyhead.

It’s only a five-minute drive (20-minute walk) from the city centre yet here you can breathe, feed the ducks and go for a decent walk – you feel like you're in the middle of the countryside. One of the major plus points was the enthusiasm of the warden – Gareth Evans - who has fallen in love with this project.

He’s really trying to encourage kids in particularly to use the park and introduced a mosaic making programme where schoolchildren have designed mosaics of the local wildlife and they’re now scattered throughout the park.

The quarry is still visible and unsightly, but the only other thing that lets it down is the visitor centre - there's lots of useful info about the park but nothing particularly green about it, no rainwater harvesting, biodegradable soaps etc. (thought they do have planning permission to install solar panels next year).

And toilets are just normal bog-standard public toilets. The nearby ‘South Stack’ is an RSPB site and the most famous local attraction – so Breakwater often misses out on publicity, but the locals love it. There are 120,000 visitors a year – it must contribute to upping the average life expectancy of Anglesey folk!

Conservation/wildlife: The site is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and there ais lots of wildlife now: main success is to have helped conserve silver studded blue butterfly. Also there are choughs, bee orchids, stone chat, herons, ducks, dragonflies, even adders. You can also see harbour porpoises and bottlenose dolphins, and seals off coast.

What's it like to visit? Is it value for money? Entrance is free. Best thing about it is that it's so close to the city centre yet you do feel like you're in the country/on the coast. The hole in the mountain is still unsightly but the park has done it's best to make this a wildlife friendly place. I particularly liked the mosaics - made by schoolkids -the warden is really trying to encourage the kids to appreciate nature.

NOMINATED BY: Once a stone quarry, now it is a place of beauty; reclaimed by nature and nurtured by the people who work there. Buildings and machinery from its former existence as a quarry, have been preserved and with well-sited information boards, act as an excellent educational resource. The cliffs that were once the source of stone are now home to peregrine falcons. Choughs, with their bright red beaks, can sometimes be seen.

We visited the Country Park in June when the paths along the cliffs were ablaze with wild flowers - thrift dancing in the breeze, red campion, bird's-foot trefoil, even bee orchids were growing in the base of the old quarry. A myriad of colours and scents to stimulate the senses. The more energetic can follow the well-maintained cliff path round to South Stack with its vast numbers of sea birds, filling the air with their calls. During the summer months, there are puffins, guillemots and razorbills to be seen.

Late August, we decided to visit Breakwater again but were half-expecting to be disappointed as we felt that the Country Park would be unable to produce the magic of our first visit. We were wrong! The glorious colour of the heather-clad rocks and bright yellow gorse, smelling of coconut, were a delight. It's hard to believe that one small area, on a far corner of Wales, can offer so much for anyone prepared to look - and don't forget to look for dolphins! - Gillian Oakes, Cheadle, Cheshire

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